Psychosis is not a single illness but a cluster of symptoms hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, and impaired reality testing that can arise from various causes. Duration varies widely based on the underlying trigger, individual factors, and treatment response. No fixed timeline exists, but patterns emerge from clinical data.

Brief Psychotic Disorder: Lasts from 1 day to 1 month. Symptoms resolve fully with minimal intervention. Seen in acute stress reactions (e.g., postpartum psychosis). Recurrence risk: ~50–80% without prophylaxis.

Schizophreniform Disorder: 1–6 months. If symptoms persist beyond 6 months, diagnosis shifts to schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder: Chronic, often lifelong. Acute episodes last weeks to months; residual symptoms (negative symptoms, cognitive deficits) persist. With antipsychotics and psychosocial support, 20–30% achieve full remission; 50% experience relapsing-remitting course.

Substance-Induced Psychosis: Hours to days (stimulants like methamphetamine) or weeks (cannabis, especially high-THC strains). Full resolution common after abstinence; 10–20% progress to primary psychosis in predisposed individuals.

Medical/Organic Causes (delirium, encephalitis, temporal lobe epilepsy): Hours to weeks, tied to the primary condition. Resolution follows treatment of the cause.

Bipolar or Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features: Days to weeks during mood episodes. Antipsychotics + mood stabilizers shorten duration; untreated episodes average 3–6 months.

Key Predictors of Duration:

• Early intervention: Reduces episode length by 50–70% ( RAISE study).
• Adherence to antipsychotics: Cuts relapse by 60% (meta-analyses).
• Substance cessation: Critical for drug-induced cases.
• Social support and stress management: Improve outcomes.

Most first-episode patients (60–70%) recover within 3–6 months with treatment. Untreated psychosis increases duration and brain volume loss (duration of untreated psychosis correlates with poorer prognosis; each week untreated raises non-recovery risk by ~10%).

Seek immediate psychiatric evaluation. Duration is highly individual consult a clinician for personalized prognosis.